Poljot Sturmanskie

Early cal. 31659 Sturmanskie - 1987

I'm always on the lookout for Sturmanskie cal. 31659 chronographs that are in decent condition, and especially so if they happen to be of mid-eighties vintage as is the case with this piece. The paint was flaking off the chrono-seconds hand and I had no movement shot to confirm that it was a 31659, but as luck would have it the movement was, as predicted, a cal. 31659! I happened to have a spare chrono-seconds hand with original paint to replace the damaged hand, therefore I had no problem in restoring the watch.

The story behind this particular watch is that it was purchased at a flea market in Munich, Germany in the early-nineties. The vendors were Poles that had cases full of Soviet-era watches for sale at relatively cheap prices; compared with what we would pay in today’s market. Mr. Shorokhov (Poljot V, Poljot International) had stated that flea market bargains in Germany factored in his decision to create his own brand of watches, so you can imagine the bargains to be had. Later, copies of some P.I. watches would also be sold outside of the authorized dealerships for bargain prices.

Typical Sturmanskie case back

Nothing we haven't seen before, so I thought I'd spice up the pic a little. ;-)

Early Poljot cal. 31659

This movement is identical to the movement fitted to the watch in the previous tab, but with a higher serial number (9477).